Former WWWF Headliner Hans Mortier Passes Away

[Travicity]

Hans Mortier (Jacob "Dutch" Grobbe) passed away at 2:00 early this morning after a long illness. He will be cremated on Saturday.

Mortier, a former bodybuilder who was billed as the former bodyguard for actress Bridget Bardot (I believe that wasn't actually the case), was a headliner for the WWWF.

Billed from Germany (all the German personas were massive heels in that era, just a few decades removed from World War II) but really from Holland, Mortier feuded with Bruno Sammartino, challenging for the WWWF championship.

Mortier used the full nelson as his submission hold with the storyline being that due to his size and muscle mass, no one could break the hold. He was built up as a killer challenger for Sammartino, who did indeed break the hold in the blow-off matches to their program, en route to retaining the belt. Like many other top challengers, the initial matches would have some sort of inconclusive finishes, building to a blowoff. In Mortier's case, he worked several Texas Death Matches against Sammartino.

Outside of the WWWF, Mortier also wrestled under a number of aliases in different territories, including Dutch Howlett, the masked Dr. X, Tarzan Zorra (after X was unmasked), The Great Zorro and Lord Charles Montegue.

In Florida, he held the Florida Heavyweight championship on multiple occasions. As Lord Charles Montegue in the old Houston, Texas territory, he teamed with the late Professor Boris Malenko the American Tag Team titles. In Hawaii, he was one half of the Tag Team champions with Johnny Barend, defeating Pamero Firpo & Neff Maiva. He also held what was billed as the European Heavyweight championship during his career.

Our condolences to Mortier's friends and family during this sad time.

A very special thanks to Scott Teal.

PWI

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R.i.p